Nelson Mandela drew his final breath unaided as his friends and family
gathered around his bedside to say their goodbyes, it emerges

Nelson Mandela drew his last breath unaided as his friends and family gathered around his bedside to say their goodbyes, it has emerged.

Those closest to the revered former South African president were called to see him for a last visit by his wife Graca, who told one: “The doctors have said, 'anytime’.”

One friend told how the 95-year-old, who spent much of last year in and out of hospital suffering from a lung infection, had no life support in his last days and appeared to be “sleeping, but in pain”.

“We bowed our heads and had a moment of silence by his side,” Bantu Holomisa told the Telegraph. “I could feel that it was not the Madiba I knew. Things had changed.”

There were differing reports this weekend about how Mr Mandela died — one said that he had developed an immunity to antibiotics and was then hit with an infection, another cited an irreversible fluid build-up in his lungs while a third suggested his blood pressure had dropped beyond a level doctors could resolve.

What is known is that he was surrounded by his closest family — Mrs Machel, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, his former wife to whom he remained close, his oldest daughter Makaziwe, and his oldest grandchildren Ndileka and Mandla.

Mr Holomisa said he received a call from Mr Mandela’s oldest granddaughter Ndileka on Thursday telling him: “Bantu, we don’t like what’s happening with Tata (father), you must come”.

“I worked with him for closely for so many years — he used to call me to come and see him and when I rushed there, I found it was nothing serious, he just wanted to chat and eat together,” he said.

“I’m finding it hard to believe he’s gone, I’m still in a state of denial I suppose.” Ahmed Kathrada, who was sentenced to life in prison with Mandela in 1964, said he too was informed on Thursday that Mr Mandela’s condition had deteriorated.

Mr Kathrada said Mrs Machel had conveyed the message to him through another person that “the doctors have said, ’Anytime.’” Visitors in Mr Mandela’s last hours were invited to go into his room upstairs in groups of two or three, the South African Sunday Times reported, and many emerged sobbing.

Another, unnamed source, told the paper that after Mr Mandela died at 850pm, “the family was very strong but the mood was very sombre”.

It was broken, the source said, when Mr Mandela’s body was brought downstairs, with his oldest grandson and heir shouting out his Xhosa praise name according to tradition.

“The toughest moment came when the military arrived to collect Madiba’s body around midnight,” the paper quoted the source as saying. “When they came down from his room upstairs with his lifeless body, followed by Mandla, it started to sink in that Madiba was gone.

“We all stood up to observe the moment and joined in when Mandla sang his praises ... Aah Dalibunga.”